Cases of death involving police shootings are themselves rare. Of those 44 Toronto fatalities investigated going back to 2008, only 15 involved someone dying from police gunfire. The other investigations were of deaths in custody and vehicle-related deaths.

Death investigations also included self-inflicted deaths, “jumpers” and medical-related deaths. As long as police were present or had some interaction with the deceased person, the SIU invokes its mandate to open an investigation.

Many more on-duty Toronto officers, 23 in total over that time, have been charged with lesser offences such as assault and sexual assault.

Before the Cavanagh case, the last Toronto officer charged with manslaughter in a shooting was Const. Rick Shank. He shot suspected drug dealer Hugh George Lawson in a 1997 incident. In May 1999, a jury cleared him.

In 2000, four Toronto officers — constables Rob Lemaître, Phil Duncan, Nam Le and Felipo Bevilacqua — were charged with manslaughter after Otto Vass, 55, died after a violent hand-to-hand struggle with police. The officers were acquitted in 2003.

Outside of Toronto, there are less than a handful of cases that stand out involving on-duty officers being charged with shooting civilians.

In 2000, York Region Const. Randy Martin was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Tony Romagnuolo, a 44-year-old carpenter. However, after a jury trial, Martin and two other officers charged with lesser offences were acquitted.

In 1996 Det. Robert Wiche, of York Region Police, was charged with manslaughter in the shooting of 16-year-old Faraz Suleman of Markham. Wiche was cleared during a preliminary hearing in 1997.

According to SIU statistics, 2012 turned out to be the busiest year of the past six for investigations.

There were 11 civilian death investigations involving on-duty Toronto police in 2012, including the shooting and killing of 29-year-old hospital patient Michael Eligon, who had fled Toronto East General Hospital in a hospital gown and was carrying two pairs of scissors when confronted by police.

SIU director Ian Scott did not lay criminal charges in that case because he ruled the officer was acting in self-defence.